Flight delayed? SC lawmakers may allow you to have a cocktail at the gate
Air travelers at select airports in South Carolina may soon be able to enjoy a cocktail while sitting at the gate before boarding their flights.
In a near unanimous vote of 14-3, a Senate panel approved a proposal that would allow passengers to consume alcoholic beverages beyond security checkpoints while waiting to board their flights at gate terminals.
Now headed to the floor, the measure comes one day after a Senate Judiciary Committee approved proposals that would legalize home delivery of alcoholic beverages, while tightening regulations on bartenders or others who serve alcohol.
Travelers can now purchase alcoholic beverages at airport restaurants and bars, but state law requires that those drinks be consumed in the bar or restaurant. The businesses’ alcohol permits don’t allow for off-premise consumption of the drinks.
When at a bar in the airport, “sometimes 15 or 20 feet from the bar itself, you’ve got a seat in the concourse that may not be considered as ‘on-premesis’” for alcoholic consumption, said state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley. “This would just say that anything behind the TSA line would be considered the premises for on premise consumption.”
S. 459 would allow travelers to take their alcoholic beverages beyond a vendor’s area, including concessionaires, to their departure gates.
The measure would only apply to establishments at certain airports, including Columbia Metropolitan Airport, Charleston International Airport, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and Myrtle Beach International Airport — to name a few. Retailers at qualifying airports would still need to get approval from their respective airport authorities before implementing the move.
“Have other states done this?” said state Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, who ultimately abstained from the measure. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone having a drink outside of the actual bar in a restaurant (at an airport) anywhere I’ve ever been,” asking whether S.C. would be pioneering the measure.
“I don’t know that I’ve necessarily seen that either, senator, but I’ve seen a lot of cramped restaurants” at airports, said state Sen. Sean Bennett, R-Dorchester.
Grooms said others states have enacted similar legislation, including Tennessee.
State Sen. Rex Rice, R-Pickens, who opposed the measure, expressed concern over whether bars and restaurants would have to apply for new liquor licenses to include the expanded areas where drinks may be consumed in airports.
Grooms, however, said that licensed establishments in airports would not be required to update their liquor licenses.
This story was originally published March 1, 2023 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Flight delayed? SC lawmakers may allow you to have a cocktail at the gate."
